UK academic considering a move to Australia?

Have you thought about moving from the UK to work in the higher education sector in Australia but unsure about the practicalities?

We collated your questions and queries about relocating to the Australian Higher Education sector and sent them to Professor Karen Strickland and Professor Patrick Crookes, both of whom have already made the move and can offer invaluable advice.

Please contact us via the comments section or email WEGmarketing@warwick.ac.uk if you have any further questions you would like answering.

I have done 14 years in Australia, 12 in the UK where I am currently, and 3.5 in the US.
For social scientists, Australia will want to see a very good profile in any applicant, but they certainly do not bias against international applicants if they believe they could thrive in their system. Frankly, there could well be non-Australians on the hiring committee – a decent percentage of staff were born in another country! A level B (lecturer) job would on balance need a better profile than one in the UK (I have recruited people for both). You need to show you could – obviously – teach classes in Aus that are predominantly composed of Australians and (increasingly) international students (who bias towards Asian countries). UK sociology, human geography etc. is well respected, but will need to be ‘translated’ should you work in Australia. I talked through a sample syllabus with this in mind at my interview.
Research ‘achievements’ , I am sorry to say, need to be pretty high to succeed for a permanent lectureship (only permanent posts are ever going to result in being offered a ‘permanent resident’ visa- these are expensive to apply for and put you on a direct route to citizenship). I came in from the US with 11 years post PhD work and about 20 good articles and some grants, exceeding what would normally be expected for a level B lectureship. I guess I had demonstrated more achievements to the hiring committee than other applicants, although not knowing the country. This is rather sad but the popularity of Australia means posts are never short of applicants. I have heard similar stories in other universities.
Australian unis love grant success too – there is only one major source of academic funding for social scientists there, the ARC, so if you have succeeded in UK with ESRC, that is a drawcard – you might do well with the ARC at a future time. Best not to mention you could apply for the equivalent of an ESRC Fellowship, however – these exist in Australia but buy you out of teaching, which will be wanted…as in UK, teaching makes more money for Departments than research. However ‘hit rates’ for ARC hover at around 15% so it is no picnic trying to fund social science research (there is a health research funder as well , NHMRC, and other ‘industry’ and ‘applied’ sources). This was the significant downside of moving to Australia – lack of diversity in the main sources of research funding. It is after all, a much smaller country than UK and it does not have a history of very high government investment in universities, despite the huge importance of higher education to the economy.
The upside is 25-30% better pay than the UK, less and enjoyable teaching in my case (not everybody’s) and something of a disdain for the type of overarching bureaucracy present in UK universities with their top-down and committee management of everything to do with teaching and research. My family were much happier.
In terms of the lesser known universities, they still draw international scholars in, but they may have slightly lower pay rates than the research ‘Group of 8’ (although these are all unionised rates) and you will find yourself with more time in the classroom and possibly with less high achieving students, just as in the UK. But they will love it if you develop success in research – some of them started as polytechnics and dual sector colleges and have high aspirations to compete with the likes of Melbourne and Sydney. A warning is that the neoliberal drift in Australian universities is strong and longstanding – the government puts in a fraction of what is needed to run a university, so fees are charged (since late 1980s) and international student fees make up a huge shortfall in running costs. They love their academic ‘superstars’ and VCs are management very highly paid, as in commerce. See this article, or many others. http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/87050/4/Halffmann_and_Radder_SB_paper.pdf
A common question asked is ‘how do you manage being so far’. Tricky, but reflecting a northern hemisphere bias in so much of academic life. Yes there are fewer colleagues and less conferences and they are more expensive to attend Down Under. But publishing and communication is globalised. So is friendship. There is also the vestiges of a sense of inferiority – but a few Australian unis are now in the world top 50 and the terms and conditions of employment are generally favourable for staff. However what with Brexit and US politics, this sense of inferiority is diminishing! Brexit is scarcely mentioned.

Please I wish to know how one can get an academic job in Australia? Am currently a 3rd year PhD student at University of Bradford and I wish to move to Australia after my study but I wish to know the practical way of doing that.

I’m interested in knowing the practicalities: where jobs are advertised; any major differences in opportunities/recruitment between Australia and the UK; any short-term opportunities (i.e. less than a year); logistical considerations e.g. are employers prepared to interview via Skype, visa issues etc.

Similar to Anna; where are jobs advertised, do AU universities seek overseas candidates, do they provide settlement packages. Also, when look to buy houses and looking at bringing spouses, what support is there? On a more focussed level, what is the culture of AU universities? I hear that NZ is very supportive, whereas the US is pretty cut throat? Thanks, this is an ideal webinar.

I nearing write stage up of my PhD and will be submitting next year. I have contemplated an academic career in Australia but we are a family of 7 (6 kids but one is 18 and may be going to uni this year) and this would have to be taken into account with lifestyle, schools and work opportunities for my husband.

I am interested in a research position in the field of education with the view to setting up on my own at sometime in the future. My background is in sociology of education but also covers history of ed, psychology and philosophy. My main research interests include the thoughts and behaviour of those from disadvantaged backgrounds and how education can feed into this in both a negative and positive way. What is the likelihood of finding an academic job in this area and also would there be prospects of developing further?

I think it would be very helpful to cover
1. The practicalities on job hunting, which job websites (most common for academia? Are there sites for HEI affiliated incubators and startups?)
2. Remote interview norms and quirks, in person interviews?
3. Common pitfalls of overseas applications?

I’m an Australian who move to the UK for better job opportunities. Would love to return ‘home’ – but is there a better way of doing this? Been doing post-doc research for 17 years now (and not yet back up to my pre-PhD wage….)

This is exactly what I need!
Please could you tell me more about visas and what is required if have already been offered a job? E.g. do I need to prove I can speak English or have my skills checked?
Also, can we expect any help with moving costs?
Have turned down a job in Sydney because difficulties with visa type and therefore having to pay for schooling for children.

Are there specialist agents that can help academics with these kinds of practicalities??
Thank you

Like ACTed, I am Australian and would like to move back from the UK. What are the opportunities in STEM related academic fields, senior University management, government policy, with Societies etc?
Thank you.